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January 17, 2005

Announcing Sugar High Fridays 5

On February 11th, I’ll have the honour of hosting the fifth edition of the sweet-tooth blogging event, Sugar High Fridays. Created by food blogger and baker extraordinaire Jennifer of the Domestic Goddess, SHF brings together dessert addicts from around the world once a month to create mouth-watering sweets with a common theme. So far we’ve had four incredible themes: White Chocolate and Apples by Jennifer, Spices by Zarah Maria, and most recently, Nuts by Viv.

For February, I’m pleased to announce that the theme will be . . . Puff Pastry: hundreds and hundreds of layers!

You are welcome to make any dessert that uses puff pastry, whether it’s something classic like palmiers or mille-feuille, or something creative that you invent yourself. On February 11th, post your entry on your website, or send it to me and I’ll post it on A La Cuisine! The following day, I’ll post a round-up linking to everyone’s delicious puff pastry creations.

I for one am no expert in puff pastry, but cookbook author Dorie Greenspan seems to explain it best when she writes:

There is no dough more elegant than puff pastry, no dough more sumptuous, and no dough more likely to make you feel like a million bucks after you’ve prepared it for the first time, in part because it’s so dramatic – under heat, the hundreds of layers of cold butter in the dough melt, the water in the butter turns to steam, and the steam pushes the dough up to dizzying heights – and in part because you know you’re making something legendary.

Puff pastry certainly seems to be one of the miracles of baking. Its taste is wonderfully deep, nutty, and flaky, and the pastry is versatile enough to be used for an endless number of creations. So what better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day than to make something so delicate and delicious for a special person in your life!

Perhaps you may have heard that making puff pastry is a time consuming process, and is also difficult to make in hot, humid weather. If either of these are concerns for you, you’re more than welcome to use pre-made puff pastry dough that can often be found in grocery stores or sometimes purchased from bakeries. I’m sure your results will be just as spectacular.

If you do decide to make puff pastry yourself, I’ll be making it for the first time too. In the weeks leading up to SHF 5, I’ll be trying out different puff pastry recipes, including those by Sherry Yard, Pierre Hermé, and Pascal Rigo. I’ll be sure to blog about these experiments, and will pass along any useful hints and recipes I pick up along the way.

So there you have it. Everyone - whether you’re a novice baker or a skilled professional – is welcome and encouraged to participate! Please e-mail me at [email protected] once you’ve posted your entry, or if you’d like me to host your entry. And of course, feel free to e-mail me or leave a comment if you have any questions.

Puff... pastry? Oh my god, that is scary. I will certainly do my best to participate, but as of right now: I'm scared. Intimidated, even. But also a little bit curious and intrigued.. hm, this may be the perfect time to actually try it...

It's fresh -fresh! - exciting! It's so fresh - it's so... da-da-di-dum... Um?! Don't know where that came from, but it sure sums up how I feel about this SHF! What a great - and a wee bit scary, yes! - theme Clement!

I made it once, many moons ago, at the age of about 13, in a "Home Economics" class at school. Well, I made it once, I can do it again. (and if I can't I know how to cheat!) Let's hope the weather stays cool til February, it would be nightmare trying to make this pastry in the summer. I feel sorry for the bloggers down under who might want to join in...

I just made puff pastry a couple of days ago for the first time in more than the past decade, and it didn't exactly turn out successful but was tasting great nevertheless. I don't know if I can participate though, because I'll be back in a tropical island of Hawaii by that time, and like Sam says it could be too hot to make puff pastry over there. But if I do (successfully) I will sure join you guys!

Thanks everyone for your interest in SHF 5! I realize that puff pastry has the potential to be a challenging theme, so I'm glad that we're all doing this together (virtually, at least). Just do what you're comfortable with - buying pre-made puff pastry dough is completely fine (you don't even have to say whether or not you made it yourself!)

Sam and Chika - Thanks for reminding me about those living in warmer climates. I'll edit my post to reflect that. Chika, I really hope you can join us, although I would trade you Toronto's frosty -20C weather for making puff pastry in beautiful Hawaii in an instant!

Hi! My food blogging started very recently and this will be my first SHF. I've been looking forward for this, but I'm rather nervous about the difficult and challenging theme :-) My last attempt with puff pastry ended with really ugly pastries, even though they tasted delicious :-)

I've only made puff pastry from scratch once, in a baking course I took at George Brown College here in Toronto. It was the VERY first thing we made and we started it on the first night - talk about nervewracking! It turned out to be one absolutely amazing experience; one which I've not had the opportunity to duplicate. I think I'll try it again soon...

I'm glad you're giving some leeway for those of us who want an easier way into this. Puff pastry is fabulous....but the effort involved! I am looking forward to this SHF because it's about time I joined in on all the fun!

I'm curious to chat sometime. I and another fellow (Dave) will be co-chefs at a new restaurant very soon (a week; we are very much working in the same vein as you, and we are hoping to develop some weekly workshops on the m.g. tip. Drop a line...

hello there ,came across your site ! couple quick tips on puff pastry !! dont over mix the dough 1-2 mins ....gluten development will come in the rolling and folding of butter ,relax the dough in fridge for 20 mins ,covered . also i feel to get butter more evenly distributed ,roll out dough to a quarter inch. also roll the butter between 2 pieces of parchment paper to make a sheet of butter to start the lamination process ......have fun .chef joe and the culinaryforce